Le Mans Michelin Guide 2011

Your 2011 guide to the

LE MANS 24 HOURS

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to Michelin’s guide to the 79th Le Mans 24 Hours...

Contents

Undoubtedly the world’s greatest endurance motor race. Ahead of this year’s race on 11/12 June, this guide will provide a useful reference for the race whether you are travelling down to La Sarthe to watch it live or settling down in front of your television. It includes practical information for visitors to the race plus a pile of interesting facts and figures.

Michelin is synonymous with the Le Mans 24 Hours, having supplied the tyres that won the first race back in 1923 and more recently become its most successful tyre supplier. This year we are out to win our 14th consecutive Le Mans 24 Hours and with all but three of the fastest Prototype cars on our rubber have an excellent chance. Success in 2011 would also be our 20th Le Mans 24 Hours win.

Yet the race is not all about overall victory, and although the missile-like Prototype cars are the undoubted stars of the show, it’s perhaps the race within the race for Grand Touring cars which gives the event its unique flavour. All eyes will be on the flat-out battle between Audi, Peugeot and Aston Martin, but there will be equally as intense warfare between the Porsches, Ferraris and Lotus GTs. In Allan McNish, British fans have a true sporting hero to follow as the 41-year old Scot goes all-out to win his third Le Mans 24 Hours title. You can find an in depth interview with the Audi ace in the section about this year’s race.

We trust you will enjoy reading this guide and watching the 2011 Le Mans 24 Hours story unfold. The editorial team welcomes your views and suggestions for next year’s guide.

Please email webinfo@uk.michelin.com

THE LEGENDS OF LE MANS Local Hero – Stirling Effort Team Managers – Le Mans the Movie The Mulsanne Straight – The 1955 Disaster – Le Mans Timeline 2010 Highlights – Le Mans 2010 Winners – Interesting Facts THE RACE CLASSES The Race Categories – Prototypes – LMP1 – LMP2 LMGT Endurance – Gas Turbines MICHELIN AT LE MANS Michelin Tyres at Le Mans Facts and Figures Michelin in Motor Sport: GREEN X Challenge MICHELIN Pilot Super Sport Michelin’s 19 Le Mans Winners LE MANS 2011 Le Mans Race Week Schedule Team Guide – LMP1 – LMP2 – LMGT Endurance – Lotus Blossoms Anew Allan McNish Interview La Sarthe Testing Round-Up LE MANS PRACTICALITIES Getting to Le Mans from the UK – Travelling Without a Car – Travel Tips Camping at Le Mans The Le Mans Circuit Finding Your Way Around Where to Watch: a spectator’s insight RELATED LE MANS ITEMS Le Mans Series Classic Le Mans Le Mans Series Teams

The Legends of Le Mans

Local Hero One time F1 driver and local hero Henri Pescarolo has driven a record 33 Le Mans 24 Hours, with four victories to his name.

His own team contests the Le Mans Endurance Series and the 24-Hours. Pescarolo Sport raced Courage C60 prototypes and modified them to such an extent that Courage allowed the team to name the car a ‘Pescarolo’.

• The bearded veteran, whose operation is based at Le Mans, came very close to winning the 24 Hours in 2005 with the Pescarolo C60H. His team won the LMES championship that year and was second at Le Mans in 2006, and third in 2007.

• With funding removed, Pescarolo was a no-show in 2010. However, the team’s assets were bought out of receivership by Henri’s philanthropic associates Joel Rivière and Jacques Nicolet, and now he’s bidding for a third LMP1 title with his Judd V12-powered car.

• Drivers include ‘Pesca’ himself, Christophe Tinseau, Emmanuel Collard and Julien Jousse.

Stirling Effort The most famous driver never to win Le Mans was Sir Stirling Moss. Despite 10 attempts, four in Jaguar C-types from 1951 to 1953 and ’54 in a works D-type, his best placing was second behind Hamilton and Rolt as Jaguars filled three of the top four places. Stirling partnered Juan-Manuel Fangio in the ill-fated 1955 race, and also drove for Aston Martin three times, in a DB3S in 1956 and a DBR1 in 1958 and 1959.

Rather than formed up on a grid, the traditional Le Mans start involved cars lined up en echelon along the length of the pits - no such thing as a pit lane or pit wall back then - and at the 4.00pm flag fall (no lights then either) drivers sprinted across the track, jumped into their car, fired up and pulled out into the racing line.

Stirling’s means of getting away first was to have the car ready in 1st gear, turn the starter key, at which the car would lurch forward, then he’d depress the clutch, the engine would fire as he was rolling and he’d be on his way while the others fumbled for their gears.

The Legends of Le Mans

Team Managers The top teams’ strategies are devised by canny team managers, and successive victories demonstrate their acumen. Some keep discretely in the shadows, while others maintain a fiery presence on the pit wall. Best known are Alfred Neubaur of Mercedes-Benz in the 1950s, Carlo Chiti at Alfa Romeo, Huschke von Hanstein at Porsche, Mauro Forghieri at Ferrari and John Horsman at JW Automotive in the ’60s.

They may not have been easy-going, but all commanded the respect of drivers and mechanics alike.

Norbert Singer was Porsche Competitions Department head honcho during the 1980s.

Here’s Allan McNish’s take: ‘when you start working with Norbert Singer you realise what racing cars really are and what teams are all about. He taught me how to win races by staying focussed and taking a conservative approach when necessary.’

• Mario Andretti also remembers Norbert as being a top team boss: ‘At Le Mans in ’88 it was my son Michael and my nephew John and myself, and the Group C regulations meant you had to maintain a certain fuel consumption rate. Norbert Singer was manning our car, and that was the best. Stuck and Wollek were lead drivers in the other two cars and Singer said, “don’t worry about them, they’ll be fighting each other, and by 1.00 o’clock they’ll be deficient of 30-litres of fuel.” And that’s exactly what happened, we maintained our pace and by 1.00 o’clock (in the morning) we were solidly in the lead.’

• One of the most successful team managers operating at Le Mans is Reinhold Joest.

A works driver for Porsche in the 1960s and ’70s, Reinhold ran his own cars from the ’70s, winning in 84, ’85, ’96, ’97, ’00, ’01,’02 and ’06. By 2000 he’d attracted the attention of Audi who engaged him to run the factory team. 1997 winner Stefan Johansson describes the atmosphere in the pits: ‘the Joest team was a comfortable place to be. It was interesting to come back and drive for Reinhold in ’97, bearing in mind that ’84 was the last time I drove for him. Every single mechanic from ’84 was still there, and that says something about Joest, the true sign of a great team and a great team owner.

It was amazing, everybody was like clockwork, no rush, no panic, everybody got on with their own job, and we had maybe 10 people at Le Mans who were actually working on the car in the pits and everything. It was very impressive.’

Le Mans the Movie Singleton Hollywood movies stand out on particular racing genres: F1: John Frankenheimer’s “Grand Prix” (1966), IndyCar: James Goldstone’s “Winning” (1969), NASCAR: Tony Scott’s “Days of Thunder” (1990), and of course Lee Katzin’s “Le Mans” (1972). In the movie, Steve McQueen the actor and petrolhead plays moody Porsche racing driver Michael Delaney, at loggerheads with Ferrari rival Erich Stahler (Seigfried Rauch) while living out a tortured and unfulfilled romance with Lisa Belgetti (Elga Andersen) the wife of a fallen comrade, killed in a dice with Delaney at last year’s event.

With successes in Mini Coopers and a 908 at Sebring (with Peter Revson) in 1970, plus starring roles in Bullitt and The Great Escape, McQueen had all the right credentials.

When his own Le Mans entry (with Jackie Stewart) in a 917 was vetoed by the insurance companies, he entered a 908 Flounder as a camera car, driven by Herbert Linge and Jonathan Williams, and it finished an unclassified ninth after an early starter-motor failure and pitting to change films in the three on-board cameras.

Solar Productions film company built a village in the circuit infield, bought in a few Le Mans cars and hired the rest from privateers like David Piper, Jo Siffert and the Filipinetti Racing team. Top-line racing drivers were hired, Attwood, Elford, Siffert, Redman, Bell, Parkes and Piper handling five 917s, two 908s, five 512s, a Matra 650, Alfa T33 and four Lola T70s, some disguised as Porsche and Ferrari for crash scenes.

Interspersed with live action from the 1970 race, the lavish budget ran at £10K a day, with around 150 permanent staff and up to 1000 extras for crowd scenes. Despite McQueen’s attention to detail the movie was a box office flop, though for 24-Hours race fans it does the business.

The Legends of Le Mans

The Mulsanne Straight More correctly known as Les Hunaudières, the 3.1-mile (5km) long Mulsanne straight was traditionally the fastest part of the circuit, and ironically the most relaxed from a driver’s point of view. Though most cars reached terminal velocity down Mulsanne, its very straightness allowed a few moments respite from controlling the car through the turns, while providing an opportunity to scrutinise the gauges as well.

• In 1990 two chicanes were installed along Mulsanne to bring speeds down.

• Les Hunaudières café-auberge near the first chicane is potentially a good place to take a cappuccino and croissant as cars thunder by at over 150mph.

The straight was not featureless: the infamous Mulsanne kink amongst the trees two-thirds the way along caught out many, though the notorious hump towards the end of the straight where the front of the car went light as drivers crested it, causing Mark Webber to dramatically flip his Mercedes-Benz CSL in 1999, was compressed for 2011.

• Setting up the car for the 90 degree Mulsanne Corner meant braking from 200- to 40mph and many a car slid off into a deep sandbank on the outside of the corner. Some drivers spent hours with shovels digging their cars out.

• Fastest recorded speed along Mulsanne is 251.7mph (405 kph), achieved in 1988 by Roger Dorchy in a WM Peugeot P88. It’s likely that the long-tail Porsche 917s were doing at least that in 1971, though not officially recorded.

• The cars were going so slowly out of Mulsanne corner that it was expedient to site signalling pits there where they would be seen better, as well as in the main pits.

The 1955 Disaster The 1955 disaster remains the worst motor racing accident ever, with 81 spectators and one driver killed. At 6.28pm, as Lance Macklin’s Austin-Healey swerved to avoid Mike Hawthorn’s late pitting Jaguar - long before there was a pit lane, let alone a pit wall, and crowd protection consisted of straw bales and wattle fencing - Mercedes driver Pierre Levegh’s works SLR was launched off the sloping back of the errant Healey and plunged straight into the banking separating spectators from the track. Levegh was killed instantly and his disintegrating car’s magnesium tube chassis erupted in flames, its engine and componentry scything through the crowd at head height.

Unwitting fire crews deployed water on the burning magnesium, causing it to burn hotter. The race continued, since to stop it would have clogged the access roads precluding ambulance and emergency vehicles reaching the circuit. Mercedes’ withdrawal gave the win to Jaguar’s Hawthorn and Ivor Bueb. More far reaching repercussions were the banning of motor sport by countries such as Switzerland, though Le Mans carried on unabated. pic to go here

The Legends of Le Mans

Le Mans Timeline Le Mans is one of the longest circuits used in international motor racing, a blend of long, flat-out straights, sweeping curves, tight turns and slow second and third gear chicanes, with average race speeds around 200kph and qualifying laps well in excess of that. It’s always been the supreme test of engines, transmissions, brakes and tyres, not to mention drivers’ stamina and concentration.

Le Mans first hosted international racing in 1906, staging the French Grand Prix. The course ran on public roads in a loop from the city to outlying villages Saint Calais and La Ferté Bernard, but was abandoned with the outbreak of the First World War. In 1923 the local Automobile Club de l’Ouest opened a new 10.7-mile course on the current site and the first 24-Hours race was staged on 26/27 May that year. Overall winners were the cars and crews who covered the furthest distance over 24 hours.

• The early races were dominated by French, British, and Italian drivers, teams, and cars, with Bugatti, Bentley and Alfa Romeo the dominant marques.

• The first race winner in 1923 was a 3.0-litre Chenard-et-Walcker Sport, shod with Michelin tyres and crewed by André Lagache and René Leonard, completing 128 laps of the 17km track at an average speed of more than 90kph.

• Of the early winning makes during the 1920s - Chenard-et-Walcker, Bignan, Excelsior and Lorraine-Dietrich, only the Bentley name survives.

• The 24-Hours was conceived by car journalist Charles Faroux as a way of improving car headlights: running a night race would lead to their perfection.

• Bugatti, who built elegant cars, described Bentleys as ‘racing trucks.’ Bentleys won in 1924, 1927 (despite three works cars crashing at Maison Blanche), 1928 (Old Mother Gruff), 1929 (first four places), and 1930. Bugatti won in 1937 and 1939.

• The 1930s began with a succession of four Alfa Romeo victories, then Lagonda in 1935, Bugatti in 1937 (the aerodynamic ‘Tank’), Delahaye in 1938 and Bugatti in 1939.

• Aerodynamic bodywork began to appear in the late ’30s, evidenced by Bugatti, Delage, Delhaye and Alfa Romeo.

• French general strikes cancelled the 1936 race.

• There were no races for 10 years because of the Second World War and its aftermath.

• 1949: First race for a decade was won by the Ferrari 166MM V12 of the North American Racing Team (NART), driven by importer Luigi Chinetti and car owner Lord Selsdon, the first appearance of a Ferrari at La Sarthe.

• 1950: Talbot came back with two F1 cars modified with two-seater bodywork for Louis Rosier (who drove single handed all but for two laps) to win.

• 1951: First Jaguar win; debut of Michelin radial tyres fitted on a Lancia Aurelia. First Porsche entry - a Type 356 finished 20th and won the up to 1100cc class.

• 1952: Victory for Mercedes-Benz 300SL marked post-war comeback.

• In 1953 Duncan Hamilton and Tony Rolt averaged more than 100mph in their Jaguar C-Type - the first time in the Le Mans 24 Hours. New disc brakes proved very effective.

• In 1955 the F1-based Mercedes-Benz 300SLR featured an air brake that rose from behind the cockpit to aid braking into corners. The works team had the World Constructors’ Championship sewn up when it came to Le Mans, where Juan Fangio/ Stirling Moss were leading comfortably until the tragedy involving the sister car of Pierre Levegh. As a mark of respect, the Mercedes team withdrew and never raced again officially until 1987 with Sauber - and Michelin.

• 1955-1957: Three consecutive wins for Jaguar D-types.

• 1958-1965: A run of eight Ferrari victories (four for Belgian Olivier Gendebien) was interrupted in 1959 by a win for Aston Martin (Carroll Shelby/Roy Salvadori - Shelby went on to ‘invent’ the AC Cobra, mainstay of Ford’s early forays in the early ’60s).

• Ferrari’s Testa Rossa years were punctuated in 1963 by the first win for a mid-engined prototype, the 250P of Lodovico Scarfiotti/Lorenzo Bandini. A front-engined car would never take overall honours again.

• In the 1965 race, future F1 World Champion Jochen Rindt and team-mate Masten Gregory drove their NART Ferrari 250 LM flat out for hours after a long pit stop from 18th, thinking they’d nothing to lose - and they won. But only just - the differential collapsed going back into the paddock...

• Also in 1965, Michelin returned to Le Mans four decades after its maiden success, with an Alpine-Renault M65 and a DB/CD competing on its tyres.

• 1966: the Ford-Ferrari battle. Stung by Ferrari’s refusal to sell to them, Ford resolved to beat them on track. The 7.0-litre GT40 Mk II came good in 1966, and bullish Ford staged a one-two finish between the cars of Denny Hulme/Ken Miles and Bruce McLaren/Chris Amon. The latter had started further back on the ‘grid’ so was judged to have covered a greater distance and was given the win - by two metres.

• This was also the year that Porsche began to emerge as a challenger for outright victory rather than the inevitable class win. The 906 was the harbinger of a line including the 907, 908 and 917 culminating in the Stuttgart marque’s first win in 1970.

• The importance of top speed led to spectacular long-tail bodies and aerodynamic experiments on all the main contenders - Ford, Ferrari, Porsche, Alpine and Matra.

• 1967: The Ford Mk IV topped the podium, with Dan Gurney/A.J. Foyt taking the honours, pipping Ferrari’s P4 prototype, arguably the best looking Le Mans car ever, one of which finished second for Mike Parkes/Ludovico Scarfiotti. New slick tyres were introduced at Le Mans by Michelin on an Alpine-Renault A210.

• The start of the 1968 race was delayed till September by the student unrest that swept France. Pedro Rodriguez/Lucien Bianchi scored another Ford win in their GT40.

• 1969: The circuit safety crusade gathered momentum. All but one driver sprinted for their cars at 4.00pm Saturday, the exception being Jacky Ickx, whose walking was a personal protest against the mad scramble. All too soon he’s vindicated.

At the end of the first lap John Wolfe in a brand-new Porsche 917 is killed at Maison Blanche as he’s neglected to fasten his seat belts. Twenty-four hours later Ickx is the winner. The ACO took the hint. After Ickx’s performance in ’69 there was never another sprint start; thereafter rolling starts became the norm.

• Closest finish ever as Ickx/Oliver’s GT40 beat Herrmann/ Larrousse Porsche 908 by 100 yards after 24 hour’s racing.

The Legends of Le Mans

Le Mans Timeline • 1970: Porsche celebrated its maiden win - for the non-works 917 of Richard Attwood/ Hans Herrmann.

• During 1971’s Le Mans test week in May, Jackie Oliver set the fastest-ever lap of Le Mans at 3m 13.8sec, averaging 155.38mph. On-board telemetry indicated he took the Mulsanne kink flat at 239.85mph (386kph); the insertion of chicanes ensured that his record is for keeps.

• Jackie Oliver’s race lap record of 3m 18.4sec (151.854mph) still stands as well, thanks to the Mulsanne Chicanes and other track realignments.

• Matra’s win in 1972 gave Graham Hill the ‘triple crown’ (wins at Indianapolis, the F1 World Championship and Le Mans) and the first of four Le Mans victories for Henri Pescarolo. The French ace won again for Matra in ’73 and ’74 with countryman Gérard Larrousse.

• Belgian star Jacky Ickx racked up three more podiums on the way to his long-standing record six wins in ’75, ’76 and ’77 in the Gulf Mirage and Porsche 936.

• 1978: An all-French success as Didier Pironi and Jean-Pierre Jaussaud won in their Michelin-shod Renault-Alpine A442B. • The only constructor to win Le Mans in a car of his own name - the Rondeau M379B Jean Rondeau and Jean-Pierre Jaussaud wore the laurels in 1980.

• 1981: The new Group C cars ushered in ground-effect aerodynamics (gaining massive downforce and increased cornering speeds), while strict fuel consumption regulations required rigorous pit-stop strategies. With wins in 1981 through to 1987, the Porsche 956 and its 962 derivative were utterly dominant.

• 1988: The Jaguar renaissance blossomed as Jan Lammers/Johnny Dumfries/Andy Wallace sprayed the Champagne after winning with the XJR-9LM. • 1989: A Michelin one-two for the Sauber-Mercedes of Jochen Mass/Manuel Reuter/ Stanley Dickens and Mauro Baldi/Kenny Acheson/Gianfranco Brancatelli.

• The Jaguar XJR-12 scooped the honours in 1990 with Martin Brundle/John Nielsen/Price Cobb at the wheel.

• 1990: Two chicanes, ‘Nissan’ and ‘Carte S’, installed on Mulsanne Straight.

• 1991: New Race Control and Pit complex opened.

• The only time a rotary engined car won Le Mans was 1991, the Mazda 787B of Johnny Herbert/Volker Weidler/Bertrand Gachot taking the win.

• Peugeot’s maiden win came in 1992, with Derek Warwick/Mark Blundell/Yannick Dalmas first past the chequered flag in the 905 Evo 1B. • 1993: Another all-Michelin win as Peugeot topped the podium with the 905 of David Brabham/Christophe Bouchut/Eric Hélary.

• Mid-decade, a variety of Porsche-based cars from the factory and Joest Racing lifted the trophy, including the work’s 911 GT1-98 of Allan McNish/Stephane Ortelli/Laurent Aiello.

Solitary successes for McLaren F1 in 1995 and BMW’s V12 LMR in 1999 provided a counterpoint.

• 1997: Dunlop Curve and Chicane altered.

• 1999: Aerodynamics came into question: Mark Webber’s Mercedes-Benz CLR somersaulted on Mulsanne.

• Michelin runners totally dominated the 1999 race to claim the top four places overall with BMW, Toyota and two Audis. Michelin also wins the GTS category with Chrysler.

• The German steamroller marched on, with Reinhold Joest Racing Team switching to Audi and clinching victory from 2000 to 2002 and 2006 with the legendary R8. Michelin and its partner Audi scored a hat-trick, with victory going to Tom Kristensen/Frank Biela/Emanuele Pirro. Audi Sport North America carried on where Joest left off with the R10 TDI and R15TDI. And six times Tom Kristensen was behind the wheel of the winning car.

• 2003: Two years after its return to endurance racing, Bentley finished first and second to collect the marque’s sixth Le Mans win, 79 years after its initial triumph. Michelin’s partners won every category.

• 2007: Michelin tyres were on the winning cars for the 10th year running, taking the firm’s total to 16 wins.

• 2009: A one-two finish for Peugeots shod with Michelins, 16 years after their last success together in 1993. Michelin partners finished at the head of all four categories once again, and filled the top 15 places at 4.00pm Sunday.

• Former Porsche aces Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas together with Mike Rockenfeller brought the Audi R15 TDI Plus home in first place in 2010.

The Legends of Le Mans

2010 Highlights The 79th Le Mans 24 Hours is almost here, and if last year’s event was anything to go by then expect the unexpected.

All of the build-up in 2010 was about French manufacturer Peugeot and how its three works diesels would end the Audi domination of recent years. That never came to fruition – instead the German marque was able to exploit the frailty of the Peugeots.

Rather than French pride in La Sarthe, it was more a case of business as usual with Audi locking-out the podium. Audi Sport North America’s Mike Rockenfeller, Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas took the unexpected victory a lap ahead of Andre Lotterer, Marcel Fassler and Benoit Treluyer.

Le Mans legend Tom Kristensen and team-mates Allan McNish and Rinaldo Cappello were two laps further shy of the fellow Audi Sport Team Joest car.

The LMP2 Class was won by Strakka Racing’s HPD ARX-01, driven by Danny Watts, Johnny Kane and Nick Leventis. Only once did the car not hold the lead in LMP2 and along with taking the class spoils six laps clear, it also finished fifth overall.

LMGT1 victory was taken by Roland Berville, Julien Canal and Gabriele Gardel in the Larbre Competition Saleen S7-R, four laps to the good in a class where only three cars finished.

LMGT2, meanwhile, was littered with disappointment for the Corvette and Ferrari entries.

Their reliability woes were taken advantage of by the Team Felbermayr-Proton Porsche 997 GT3 of Wolf Henzler, Richard Lietz and Marc Lieb.

Le Mans 2010 Race and Category Winners Pos

Team

Class

Car

1

Audi Sport North America

LMP1

Audi R15 TDI

2

Audi Sport Team Joest

LMP1

Audi R15 TDI

3

Audi Sport Team Joest

LMP1

Audi R15 TDI

5

Strakka Racing

LMP2

HPD ARX.01

11

Team Felbemayr Proton

LMGT2

Porsche 997 GT3 RSR

13

Larbre Competition

LMGT1

Saleen S7R

The Legends of Le Mans

Interesting Facts Individual race victories: Tom Kristensen leads with 8 victories, having overtaken Jacky Ickx’s long standing record 6 wins - in recognition of which Ickx was made an Honorary Citizen of Le Mans. Derek Bell, Frank Biela and Emanuele Pirro have 5 wins, Olivier Gendebien, Henri Pescarolo and Yannick Dalmas have four to their credit.

The UK has the most winning drivers: 29, with France next up with 27, then Germany on 16, USA with 12 and Italy on 11.

Porsche has the most victories: 16, Ferrari and Audi on 9, Jaguar 7, Bentley 6, Alfa Romeo and Ford with 4, and Matra and Peugeot both have 3.

Fastest lap for the 2010 race by the number 4 Peugeot driven

by Panis/Lapierre/Duval in 3min 19.074sec, an average speed of 246.463kph.

THE RACE CLASSES

The Race Categories The Le Mans 24 Hours race always showcases the ultimate endurance cars, unlike Formula One which is a sprint race Le Mans makes different demands on cars and race team personnel. Because it originated as a road course – and still does to a great extent – Le Mans has witnessed the evolution of prototype racers that represent road cars at their most extreme. That’s why Le Mans cars have always worn fully-enveloping bodywork rather than sported the naked wheels of singleseater racing.

Prototypes: LMP1 and LMP2 GT’s: LMGT Endurance (Pro and Amateur)

There are separate classes for prototype sports cars and grand touring (GT) cars, with sub-divisions for different engine sizes. Typically, the outright winner is a fast sports prototype, with the highest finishing GT car probably no higher than sixth. The ultra-fast Prototypes with their exotic appearance are invariably the most fragile mechanically, sometimes allowing GT cars to be highly competitive in the overall race.

Since 2008, petrol engined cars can use 10% ethanol to create a higher-octane fuel mix, and diesel engines are also admissible. Hybrid drive-trains are encouraged within the new regulations, which include F1-style kinetic-energy recovery systems (KERS) and four-wheel drive. Regular, non-hybrid cars remain rear-wheel drive only.

Prototypes • Built specifically for endurance racing.

• New regulations for 2011 usher in the most radical cost-cutting reforms since 2007.

• Bodywork must incorporate an F1-style vertical fin on top of the engine cover to channel air more effectively and create extra down-force.

LMP1 (Le Mans Prototype 1) • Premier category for lightweight (900kgs!) cars, the fastest prototypes, numbered 1 to 24.

• LMP1 teams tend to constitute the best factory-backed operations running the fastest cars and superior componentry, commanding the best drivers.

• They can be open-top or closed cockpit, each offering different advantages.

• All brand new LMP1 cars must run engines similar to those used in LMP2 up to 2010: 3.4-litres for normally-aspirated engines and 2.0-litres for turbocharged petrol engines, with 3.7-litres the limit for turbo-diesels.

• Cars raced during 2010 in an ACO-sanctioned event can run but need to fit smaller air-intake restrictors, reduced turbo boost, and a smaller fuel cell.

LMP2 (Le Mans Prototype 2) The smaller prototypes, wearing race numbers 25 to 49.

LMP2 engines are downscaled to GT2 spec, production-based 5.0-litre normally-aspirated V8s; six-cylinder 3.2-litres turbocharged and no diesels allowed. The price of an LMP2 car is capped at €400,000, comprising €325,000 for the chassis and €75,000 for the engine.

LMP2 cars can also be configured with open or closed cockpit, and they are invariably prototypes run by private teams.

Lighter and less powerful than LMP1

THE RACE CLASSES

LMGT Endurance The old LMGT1 segment is not scheduled to appear at Le Mans in 2011 due to the conflicting schedule of the newly reformed FIA GT1 World Championship. This raises the previous LMGT2 category to the premier GT class at Le Mans, re-branded as the LMGT Endurance and separated into two classes, GT Amateur and GT Pro, with a trophy for each class.

• Directly descended from road cars, albeit highly modified.

• To enter the LMGT Endurance, a major manufacturer needs to build a minimum of 100 units as a road car, while smaller constructors must make a minimum of 25 units.

• LMGT Endurance regulations call for a maximum power of 600bhp, with minimum weight of 1250kg, or alternatively a maximum of 560bhp with minimum weight of 1200kg.

• Numbered 50 to 74 and bear green decals.

• The orange-decaled GT line-up features the more traditional Grand Tourers, based on Porsche, BMW and Aston Martin models.

Gas Turbines Most Le Mans cars run on petrol, with a variety of additives eligible over the years, and Audi’s winning diesel-fuelled cars demonstrated clearly the potency of oilburning engines. But in the 1960s it seemed that aircraft-style turbine engines were worth trying.

Rover and the BRM F1 team produced the Rover-BRM, a gas turbine powered coupe, for the 1963 24-Hours, driven by Graham Hill and Richie Ginther. It averaged 107.8mph (173 km/h) and had a top speed of 142mph (229 km/h). In 1965 Ginther was partnered by Jackie Stewart to finish 10th overall in the uncannily silent machine.

In 1968, American Ray Heppenstall linked Howmet Corporation and McKee Engineering to develop their own gas turbine prototype, the Howmet TX, which ran in several American and European events, notching up two wins, and two cars ran at the 1968 24-Hours; one crashed, the other retired. The cars used Continental gas turbines, which eventually set six FIA land speed records for turbine-powered cars.

Michelin at le mans

Michelin Tyres at Le Mans • Michelin spends the whole year preparing for the 24 Hours race and supplies at least 36 of the 55 cars entered, around 60% of the grid. Enhanced durability means Michelin has reduced the number of tyres it brings to the track. Even so, more than 5,000 tyres are required for the race week, as well as all the equipment needed to fit, strip and balance the wheels. The three articulated trucks are loaded at Michelin’s Clermont-Ferrand headquarters on the Thursday and Friday before race week and travel to the circuit in convoy.

• Michelin’s service area is set up in the paddock between Sunday and Tuesday prior to the race, and tyre fitting begins on the Wednesday morning. The fitters use new machines performing three operations: breaking the bead, removing the worn tyre, and fitting a new one, including the all-important balancing.

• The four workshops are manned by about 50 fitters, split into two teams to allow shiftworking during the night of the race. At best, they sleep four straight hours in the mobile sleeping quarters located near the paddock. That’s not a luxury afforded Michelin’s technicians, however. They’re on call throughout the 24 hours to monitor the tyres; checking wear during stints, pre-warming, checking tyre pressures and temperatures, plus post-stint analysis.

• A technician is appointed to work with each Michelin partner team. The technical squad comprises 30 technicians, four developers and four chemists who analyse the tyres after use.

• High speeds, race duration and the combination of track and public road surfaces mean the Le Mans 24 Hours provides a unique set of parameters for racing tyres. The durability and consistency of its tyres have enabled Michelin’s teams to run double, triple and even quadruple stints in complete safety while maintaining outstanding levels of performance and negating unnecessary tyre changes.

• Since 2009, the rules have restricted the number of both mechanics and airguns that may be used to change wheels. Tyre changes consequently take longer, which encourages manufacturers to improve the durability of their tyres.

• At Le Mans each car requires around 30 sets of slick tyres, plus intermediates and wetweather tyres. Michelin provides its partner teams with three slick compounds (soft, medium and hard). Every year Michelin significantly reworks its range of slicks for Le Mans, including new, wider tyres for the LMGT Porsches and Ferraris.

• The lap length at Le Mans (13.629km) calls for a selection of intermediate tyres, because the circuit can be damp in one place, soaking wet in another and dry along the start/finish straight.

• Qualifying tyres are constructed of very soft compounds which offer excellent performance over just one or two laps. They tend to be employed less and less, however. Peugeot posted the fastest qualifying laps in 2008 and 2009 without qualifying tyres.

Michelin at le mans

Facts and Figures 1.5 hours: The time taken to produce one endurance tyre at Michelin’s factory in ClermontFerrand in the Auvergne.

150: The number of different ingredients that go into the production of a racing tyre, including natural and synthetic rubber, textile fibres (nylon, polyester), resin, sulphur, waxes, oil, etc.

12kg: The average weight of a rear LMP1 tyre (without rim). Rain tyres are around 2kg heavier.

35%: The additional distance covered by a set of Michelin tyres in 2008 compared with 1998. The same period saw an increase in speed of around 10%!

25%: fewer tyres used by the GT2 cars in 2009 over 2006.

100°C: The approximate ideal working temperature for an endurance racing slick.

1,000kg: The vertical load (car weight + aerodynamic downforce) that an endurance tyre can be called upon to withstand.

6,500: The number of vertical flexions a Le Mans tyre must soak up every lap (84,500 flexions for a 13-lap stint).

86: The number of tyres used by the winning Peugeot during Le Mans week in 2009.

1,231km: The number of kilometres covered by an LMGT1 car on the same set of rain tyres in 2008 (equivalent of 87 laps).

5: The number of stints covered by the Signature LMP1 prototype on the same set of tyres at Le Mans in 2009 (almost four hours on the track).

Michelin at le mans

Michelin in Motor Sport: GREEN X Challenge Motor sport serves as a full-scale test laboratory for Michelin, providing solutions for road tyres applied direct from the race track or special stage. Racing also provides Michelin with a valuable showcase for its ongoing environmental groundwork for road tyres In the mid-1960s Michelin began using Formula One and endurance racing to prove the value of radial technology. The world of endurance racing also enabled it to develop new solutions to enhance the durability of its road tyres. The Michelin Pilot range, is a direct beneficiary of Michelin’s extensive circuit racing experience.

Technology transfer operates the other way round, too, evidenced by Michelin’s new range of ‘green’, aromatic oil-free endurance tyres that employ technology already seen on Michelin road tyres. The use of crude-oil based aromatic oils is no longer permitted, so have been replaced by cleaner, less-polluting raw materials.

• For the past five years, Michelin has chosen endurance racing to highlight its respect for the environment, including ‘greener’ racing tyres that last even longer, minimising production numbers. This means having to transport fewer tyres to circuits and fewer tyres to recycle.

• Tyres are responsible for about 20% of a car’s fuel consumption. Since 1992, Michelin has placed the environment and energy savings at the heart of its activities with the creation of the GREEN X signature, while the Michelin Energy range features lower rolling resistance and thereby reduced fuel consumption. Every year, users of Michelin’s GREEN X tyres save more than 800 million litres of fuel combined.

• The tyres that Michelin develops for endurance racing in general, and for the Le Mans 24-Hours in particular, are capable of covering four ‘stints’ in the case of LMP prototypes and two stints on the LMGTs while at the same time delivering consistent, safe performance from start to finish.

• Launched in 2007 in association with the ACO, the Michelin Energy Endurance Challenge (MEEC) is a modern equivalent to the former ‘Index of Performance’ that used to have almost as much significance as the overall race result. The MEEC rewards teams that succeed in combining performance with energy efficiency over the total distance of the 24-hour marathon.

• In 2009 Michelin went further still by introducing the MICHELIN GREEN X Challenge, which was extended to include not just the Le Mans 24 Hours but the Le Mans Series and the American and Asian Le Mans Series (ALMS).

• The MICHELIN GREEN X Challenge seeks to reveal the best performance/energy consumption package via a classification based on an Energy Efficiency Index (EEI), which is calculated after each race.

• Sensors on the cars and fuel rigs enable interested parties to follow the MICHELIN GREEN X Challenge in real time during rounds of the various Le Mans Series as well as at Le Mans itself.

• The Energy Efficiency Index (EEI) is calculated by dividing the average speed of each car during the race (V), excluding time spent in the pits, by its average fuel consumption (C). The formula is V / C = IRE. Fuel consumption is converted into joules/km to take into account the different types of fuel employed. For example: 200kph @ 20 litres/100km = 10.

• The team that emerges top of the MICHELIN GREEN X Challenge at the end of the 2010 Le Mans Series receives an automatic entry for the 2011 Le Mans 24 Hours, as long as they contest at least four of the Le Mans Series’ five rounds. When the winning car is a prototype, the ACO guarantees an additional place on the grid for the best-placed finisher in the GT class.

• The MICHELIN GREEN X Challenge enables the Michelin Group to highlight its status as a major player when it comes to environmentally responsible motor racing by promoting a balanced package, which, in addition to performance, takes fuel consumption, grip and durability into account too.

• 2011: Two coveted invitations for next season’s Le Mans 24 Hours race will be extended to the best-placed LMP and GTE runners in the 2011 American Le Mans Series’ and Intercontinental Le Mans Cup Michelin Green X Challenge competitions.

• With two places on next year’s Le Mans grid (both LMP and GTE categories) up for grabs in the Le Mans Series, there are potentially four reserved entries for the French classic in 2012 for this season’s most energy-efficient endurance racing cars.

Michelin at le mans

MICHELIN Pilot Super Sport What’s the most important part of a road car and race car?

Some might say the engine. Some may say the fuel. The real stars of the show though are the tyres which make the difference between better performance, maximum grip and increased safety.

Much of the technology which goes into making Michelin tyres, and especially the brand new Pilot Super Sports, is born and bred on the race track.

The long hours of hard work which Michelin’s engineers and designers put in to improving grip and, therefore, performance ensure this race and championship-winning pedigree makes its way onto our roads and motorways.

Michelin has enjoyed huge success in the world’s biggest motor racing events. At the famous Le Mans 24 Hours Race, Michelin has won 19 times with 13 of those victories back-to-back.

In Formula One, Michelin has taken 102 Grand Prix victories and nine World Championships and in GT sportscar racing Michelin tyres have helped win more than 20 titles.

At every level of motor racing Michelin succeeds and the knowledge from that success means a much better and safer driving experience on the roads across the world.

Look at many of the world’s top car manufacturers and the majority fit Michelin tyres to their brand new cars before they leave the factory – names such as AMG, Audi, Ferrari, Mercedes and Porsche.

In fact, one of the world’s fastest road cars, the Bugatti Veyron, safely reached over 250mph on a closed circuit using Michelin’s Pilot Sport PS2 tyres to set a new world speed record. Michelin tyres also set the 0-300 km/h record in 2008 when fitted to the Koenigsegg CCX-R Supercar.

Improved grip and performance means increased speed on the race track but it also leads to better safety...an extremely important part of the Michelin story.

To find out even more about Michelin tyres visit www.michelin.co.uk/tyres For details on special tyre offers visit http://motorsport.michelin.co.uk/my-michelin

Michelin at le mans

Michelin’s 19 Le Mans Winners YEAR

Drivers

2010

Mike Rockenfeller Timo Bernhard Romain Dumas

Team

2009

David Brabham Marc Gené Alexander Wurz

2008

Tom Kristensen Allan McNish Rinaldo Capello

2007

Frank Biela Emanuele Pirro Marco Werner

2006

Frank Biela Emanuele Pirro Marco Werner

2005

JJ Lehto Marco Werner Tom Kristensen

2004

Seiji Ara Tom Kristensen Rinaldo Capello

2003

Tom Kristensen Rinaldo Capello Guy Smith

Team Bentley

Bentley Speed 8

2002

Frank Biela Tom Kristensen Emanuele Pirro

Audi Sport Team Joest

Audi R8

2001

Frank Biela Tom Kristensen Emanuele Pirro

Audi Sport Team Joest

Audi R8

2000

Frank Biela Tom Kristensen Emanuele Pirro

Audi Sport Team Joest

Audi R8

Audi Sport North America

Peugeot Sport Total

Audi Sport North America

Audi Sport North America

Audi Sport Team Joest

ADT Champion Racing

Audi Sport Japan Team Goh

Car

YEAR

Drivers

Team

Car

Audi R15 TDI Plus

1999

Pierluigi Martini Yannick Dalmas Joachim Winkelhock

Team BMW Motorsport

BMW V12 LMR

Peugeot 908 HDi FAP

1998

Laurent Aïello Allan McNish Stéphane Ortelli

Porsche AG

Porsche 911 GT1-98

Audi R10 TDI

1995

Yannick Dalmas J.J. Lehto Masanori Sekiya

Kokusai Kaihatsu Racing

McLaren F1 GTR

Audi R10 TDI

1993

Geoff Brabham Christophe Bouchut Eric Hélary

Peugeot Talbot Sport

Peugeot 905 Evo 1B

Audi R10 TDI

1992

Derek Warwick Yannick Dalmas Mark Blundell

Peugeot Talbot Sport

Peugeot 905 Evo 1B

Audi R8

1989

Jochen Mass Manuel Reuter Stanley Dickens

Team Sauber Mercedes

Sauber C9-Mercedes-Benz

Renault Alpine

A442B

Audi R8

1978 Jean-Pierre Jaussaud

Didier Pironi

No Team Name

Chenard et Walcker Sport

1923

André Lagache René Léonard

LE MANS 2011

Le Mans Race Week Schedule Sunday 5th June 2011 14:30 - 19.00 Administrative Checks and Scrutineering (Place Centrale des Jacobins) Monday 6th June 2011 09:30 - 17:30 Administrative Checks and Scrutineering (Place Centrale des Jacobins) Tuesday 7th June 2011 17:00 Drivers’ Autograph Session Wednesday 8th June 2011 16:00 - 20:00 Free practice sessions 22:00 - 24:00 Qualifying practice sessions Thursday 9th June 2011 19:00 - 21:00 Qualifying practice sessions 22:00 - 24:00 Qualifying practice sessions Friday 10th June 2011 10:00 - 20:00 Pit Walk 18:00 - 20:00 Drivers’ Parade (City centre) Saturday 11th June 2011 09:00 - 09:45 Warm-Up 14:22 Beginning of starting procedure 15:00 Start of the race Sunday 12th June 2011 15:00 Finish of the race

LE MANS 2011

Team Guide LMP1 Audi Team Joest Mega-successful works-backed Audi team headed by race veteran Reinhold Joest and running the R18 TDi, crewed by some of the best-known names in modern Le Mans racing including Scotland’s Allan McNish and Denmark’s Tom Kristensen. The Audi R15s underwent a huge revamp for 2010, sporting a two-part nose design and the Joest team placed second and third behind the similar Audi North America car of Timo Bernhard.

Peugeot Total Much fancied runners, the Peugeot 908 HDi FAP won 2009’s event, but slumped in 2010 when all four cars retired. Top class driver line-up included former F1 racers Sebastian Bourdais and Olivier Panis, and British endurance star Anthony Davidson.

Aston Martin Racing A pair of Aston Martin-Lolas ran in LMP1 for the first time in 2010, painted in the blue and orange Gulf Oil colours that once liveried the iconic JWA Porsche 908 and 917 back in the early ‘70s. The Aston Martin-Lolas are powered by a V12 petrol engine and drivers include British duo Darren Turner and Andy Meyrick.

Hope Racing A lone Oreca 01 Hytech for Steve Zacchia/Oliver Lombard.

Rebellion Racing A brace of Lola B10/60 Toyotas from the potent Swiss-based team for Nicolas Prost/Neel Jani/Jeroen Bleekemolen plus Andrea Belicchi/Jean-Christophe Boullion/Guy Smith.

Pescarolo Three entries from the reborn marque run by Le Mans veteran Henri Pescarolo. Emmanuel Collard is lead driver in the Pescarolo team car supported by Matthieu Lahaye and Richard Hein in the OAK Racing entries. Power comes from a British-built Judd engine.

Highcroft Racing Sportscar specialist David Brabham is lead driver of the team’s lone HPD ARX-01e.

Quifel ASM Team One Zytek 09SC entered by the Portuguese team for Miguel Amaral and Frenchman Olivier Pla.

LE MANS 2011

LMP2 Oreca 03 French team SignaTech relies on Nissan power for its Oreca 03 driven by Franck Mailleux and a second car for Alexandre Premat, whilst a BMW motor is found in the back of Michael Frey’s Race Performance entry.

Pescarolo Two OAK Racing entries for the Pescarolo 01 driven by Frenchman Frederic Da Rocha plus a sister car for Andrea Barlesi.

Lola For 2011 Lola Cars International unveiled a pair of LMP2 cars, the open top B11/40 and the closed B11/80, designed to accept a variety of proprietary based engines from Ford, BMW, Honda, Jaguar, Toyota and Nissan.

Level 5 Motorsports – Lola B08/80 HPD – Scott Tucker/Christophe Bouchet/Joao Barbosa Pecom Racing – Lola B11/40 Judd BMW – Luis Perez-Companc RML Northamptonshire’s RML (Ray Mallock Motorsport) is back with its HPD ARX-01e for Britain’s Mike Newton, Brazilian Tommy Erdos and former Top Gear ‘Stig’ Ben Collins.

Others 2010 LMP2 category winner Strakka Racing has an all-British driver line up of Nick Leventis/ Danny Watts/Johnny Kane in its HPD ARX-01d. Greaves Motorsport has a Zytek Z11SN for Karim Ojjeh, whilst there is a lone Norma M200P/BMW for Fabien Rosier.

LMGT Endurance This fiercely contested category features the most diverse set of contenders. It’s the province of the Chevrolet Corvette, Ferrari, Lotus and Porsche supercars with the category divided into Pro and Am (amateur) drivers.

Ford GT The Ford GT, successor to the once invincible GT40 and Mks II and IV Ford, is run by the American Robertson Racing team.

BMW M3 GT2 BMW Motorsport’s two M3 GT2s wore different liveries for the 2010 race, one being the traditional BMW Art Car painted by artist Jeff Koons and driven by Andy Priaulx.

The Guernsey man retired, but the other BMW placed 19th overall. Back again this year with two cars for Priaulx and Augusto Farfus.

Porsche 911 GT3 RSR Racing a Porsche at any level always brings a fair chance of success, and Le Mans is no exception. There are eight 911 GT3 RSRs entered for the 2011 enduro including last year’s category winner Team Felbermayr-Proton’s Marc Lieb and a sister car for Britain’s Nick Tandy.

LE MANS 2011

LMGT Endurance Aston Martin V8 Vantage GT2 Aston Martin is another famous name at La Sarthe. British team Jota has Sam Hancock and Simon Dolan in its car with Gulf AMR Middle East entering Fabien Giroix/Roald Goethe.

Ferrari F430GT/458 Italia GTC There may not be a Ferrari amongst the prototypes these days, but the F430GT is a potent contender. The Italian AF Corse SRL squad is back with a pair of 458 Italias for ex-F1 driver Giancarlo Fisichella plus a second entry for Robert Kauffman.

Chevrolet Corvette C6R The iconic American sportcar is back at Le Mans with three cars with Britons Oliver Gavin and Richard Westbrook among the six drivers. The fastest GT car on the Mulsanne last year at 182mph, so it could be a real contender.

Lotus Evora GTE The Austrian Jetalliance team brings one of Britain’s most famous sportcar brands back to Le Mans with a brand new car.

Lotus Blossoms Anew It’s almost 50 years since a works Lotus raced at Le Mans. Team Lotus enjoyed numerous class wins during the 1950s with variations on the aerodynamic Type Eleven. Then in 1962 the revolutionary Lotus 23 sports prototype was rejected by scrutineers because the front wheels had four-stud fixings and the rears had six-studs. Colin Chapman vowed never to return.

Fast forward to 2011. While the Lotus Evora LMP2 is likely to give the Porsche 997, Ferrari 458 and BMW M3 a run for their money, the Evora LMGT-E will also ask questions of its competitors. James Rossiter and Johnny Mowlem tested the LMGT-E at Snetterton over 700 km with larger tyres and revised suspension, going 10 seconds a lap quicker than the GT4 version.

• Jetalliance Racing ran two Evora LMGT-Es at the Test Day for the 24-Hours on 24th April 2010, and they’re entered for the remaining six races of the Inter-continental Le Mans Cup series.

• In parallel, Lotus continues to develop the LMP2 version that will debut next year with either the Evora V6 or the V8 of the future Esprit. The latter is not yet commercially available, so only permission from the Automobile Club de l’Ouest could allow Lotus to use it in LMP2.

LE MANS 2011 How have the new regulations affected the teams?

We have been developing our car since last November so we are competitive under the new regulations. We now have a smaller engine at 3.7 litres with a smaller fuel tank of just 65 litres So we have to try to improve economy but at the same time retain speed. We have to carefully balance how many laps we can do with less fuel than last year and of course the tricky part is making sure less power does not reduce our speed.

We think the new regulations may have had a greater impact on the other teams than on ourselves as we have adapted more quickly to the new regulations and got our car on track before our rivals.

Who will Audi be racing against in the battle for overall honours?

Looking at our rivals, Peugeot is our main competition. The Aston Martin may look good on paper but their car was ready very late on in terms of being competitive at Le Mans. To be able to compete to win the race, a team must have the ability to maintain a high pace for 24 hours and not many can achieve this as it effectively is the same as racing an entire Formula 1 season in one day.

What is the Le Mans circuit like when you return after a year?

The first time you drive out onto the circuit, it feels like a road course as there are always small areas of greenery such as moss that have naturally accumulated but as the weekend progresses your perception changes and it then feels like a purpose-built race track.

Which type of car do you prefer, open or closed cockpit?

Allan McNish, 41 is Britain’s best hope for overall victory at this year’s Le Mans, having previously won the race in both 1998 and 2008. The Scot finished third for Audi in both 2009 and 2010 and we caught up with him in the run up to this year’s race.

When does the preparation for the race start and what is involved?

A huge amount of preparation is done by the entire team starting not long after the race finishes. One of the main activities is a series of long distance endurance tests. After a day setting the car up to get the balance right, we then aim to run the car for thirty hours non-stop at race pace.

Is there a dress rehearsal before the Le Mans race?

One of the most important events in the lead-up to Le Mans is the Spa 1000kms. The team and drivers will try to operate at Spa in exactly the same way as we would run at Le Mans.

What are the physical demands on a driver in the Le Mans 24 Hours and how do you prepare?

From a driver’s point of view, you are always working to keep your body and mind trimmed for the race. I competed at Le Mans for the first time in 1987, when the lap time was around 3mins 45s but now the lap time has come down to 3mins 20s and this is entirely due to increased cornering speed which places a greater strain on car and driver. You have to keep in shape all year long.

How do you pace yourself in the race?

We now drive flat out in the race as the cars are very reliable and pretty much do not break unless you hit something!

The new car is, of course, closed but I would say there are both advantages and disadvantages of having a roof. If race day turns out to be very hot then I’ll probably wish we still had last year’s open-top car.

How does it feel to be racing at Le Mans again?

Every year, I can’t help but get excited when I think about it as it’s not just another race to me – it’s Le Mans. The atmosphere is fantastic and the tension high in the hours before the race starts.

You can see the anticipation in the eyes of all the other drivers and the closer it gets to the start, the more we all tremble with excitement.

For the very latest race results for Allan McNish and the Audi team visit http://mortorsport.michelin.co.uk

LE MANS 2011

24 April 2011 La Sarthe Testing Round-Up: Audi leads the way Audi’s Tom Kristensen posted the fastest time during the official pre-event test for the 79th Le Mans 24 Hours held seven weeks before the race but only by 0.2 seconds, ahead of team-mate Mike Rockenfeller in his R18 TDi. Forming an essential part of the build-up to June’s world famous race, the April test at La Sarthe brought an Audi lock-out for the first two places with Kristensen posting a best of 3m 27.687 seconds in the car he will share with Allan McNish and Dindo Capello.

“We had a very good day”, reflected the Dane, “We were running the race programme but still had good lap times – it was a positive day with four cars within a couple of tenths of each other.”

McNish, who is Britain’s best hope for victory in 2011, added: “There is no other circuit where you’ve got such long, consectutive straights, but there are also high-speed sections through the Porsche curves and the Esses. It was very important here for us with the new R18 TDI to try to understand how the car would react on this type of track. We have found a good base set-up. Admittedly the circuit will change between now and June, but we have found a good base and a good confidence level. The chassis has been pretty consistent and the Michelin tyres have been very good. We are on target but until we get to the race in June we are not going to see what our rivals have to offer.”

Peugeot’s Stephane Sarrazin produced a late flyer in the afternoon at the wheel of his 908 HDi to get within just 0.2 seconds of the outright pace. The morning session, meanwhile, was headed by Audi’s Romain Dumas in a time of 3m 27.900 seconds.

In the realms of petrol power, Emmanuel Collard’s Pescarolo-Judd was the top runner but some nine seconds shy of eight-time Le Mans winner Kristensen’s best.

Franck Mailleux headed LMP2 in his Signatech Nissan, the GTE Pro pace was set by Allan Simonsen’s Ferrari F458 and in GTE Am, Tom Milner emerged on top in his Larbre Competition Corvette.

LE MANS PRACTICALITIES

Getting to Le Mans from the UK

Travelling Without a Car:

For detailed route mapping, traffic information, where to stay and where to eat please visit www.viamichelin.co.uk

TGV

Travelling by car: Le Mans city and the Circuit de la Sarthe (La Sarthe is the local district) is in the Pays de la Loire region. It’s 99 miles (159km) from the closest port, Caen, in Normandy - a 2hr drive along the A88 autoroute toll road, signposted Le Mans/Alençon/Argentan.

Ferry: Portsmouth-Caen The swiftest crossing from Portsmouth to Caen takes 3hrs 45mins aboard Brittany Ferries’ high-speed car ferry.

Dover-Calais The sea crossing from Dover to Calais aboard P&O’s Spirit of Britain costs £50 return (SeaFrance is £60) and takes only 1hr 30mins, followed by a 4hr 15min road journey to Le Mans on the A16, A28 and A13 autoroutes - taking care not to misroute at congested Rouen.

Newhaven-Dieppe An alternative to Portsmouth and Dover crossings is the Newhaven-Dieppe route using LD Lines, costing £175 return, and Dieppe is closer to Le Mans than Calais, a 168 mile journey of 2hr 47min by car.

The TGV takes 4hrs 30mins from London to Le Mans, followed by a 20min tram ride from Le Mans station to the circuit (Centre des Expositions), line 17, terminus Oasis. Leave London St Pancras at 9.23am on Eurostar, change at Paris Gare du Nord for Montparnasse, catch the TGV and arrive Le Mans 14.54pm, price 143 Euros per person.

Air Paris-Orly is 128 miles away.

The closest airport to Le Mans is Angers-Loire, £224 with Air France from London Airport.

Either hiring a car or taking a bus or SNCF train from Angers are the onward travel options. The circuit has its own landing strip - galling as you queue to get in to see VIPs arriving into Arnage by plane and chopper.

Eurotunnel Using the Channel Tunnel, Folkestone-Calais, via Eurotunnel drive-on trains enables a quicker arrival in France - the train takes 35 minutes - though at £106 (mid June) it’s twice as expensive as the short sea crossing.

• Journey time to the circuit is slightly shorter as the Channel Tunnel entrance/exit is the Rouen side of Calais.

• The autoroute tolls will be more (allow 27 Euros) with the longer drive, but the crossing shorter and, by ferry, potentially cheaper. * All driving times and distances are approximate using the ViaMichelin route planning website. Ticket prices indicative.

Travel Tips: Avoid speeding...on the spot fines/points are to be expected and the police can even seize your car!

Other firms offering Le Mans itineraries include Grand Prix Tours, Classic Car Tours, Grandstand Motorsport and Premium Sport Tours.

Have change in Euros available for autoroute tolls.

Best place to stop and take a break/eat on the Autoroutes: Baie de Somme near Abbeville on the A16/A28, and close to Alençon on the A28 for a “splash and dash” before hitting the Circuit.

Autoroute services accept most credit cards but Euros are needed at the Circuit.

Required for driving in France, by law: fire-extinguisher, first aid kit, warning triangle, headlight deflectors, GB identification, spare bulb set, vehicle documents including driver’s license, ownership document, insurance certificate.

If you’d prefer to let someone else do the footwork, Page & Moy do self-drive tours.

Flying to Le Mans with a package tour is an option - several travel companies offer specific trips: Race Tours, Select Motor Racing, Page & Moy, and Thomas Cook Sport.

Rouen is a convenient stopover, a halfway-house on the drive from Calais and Dieppe - masses of good hotels and restaurants in the heart of the old city.

Scenic route: take the ferry into Cherbourg and drive down through Normandy’s picturesque hilly Cotentin peninsular heading for St-Lô and Alençon.

LE MANS PRACTICALITIES

Camping at Le Mans

TERTRE ROUGE EXPO

HOUX ANNEXE BLEU NORD HOUX MAISON BLANCHE

Le Camping KARTING NORD

BLEU SUD

PORSCHE CURVES

BEAUSEJOUR

You’ve come to Le Mans to see the 24-Hours, so rather than stay in a hotel away from the circuit it makes sense to sleep in a tent and be close to the action. At midnight the atmosphere is like no other, so best not to miss it. Like a major pop festival, Le Mans is geared up for camping and there are several sites within the circuit and its periphery. You can mostly have your car alongside your tent too, with showers and toilets within easy reach. You can crawl away for some shut-eye when the fatigue sets in, or sleep it off after the race.

Most comprehensive is Le Mans Experience which provides an all-inclusive camping and dining programme at Porsche Curves, going from Portsmouth via St Malo or Cherbourg for £545 per person, including circuit admission.

One of the most sophisticated operations is Thomas Cook’s elite Airtrack Village, located just behind the paddock, offering pitches, caravans or ‘Coke can’ style billets, plus bar and café.

ARNAGE

Camping Maison Blanche is located inside the circuit within easy walking distance of the pits, grandstand and village. Early arrivals camp within 10 yards of the track and see the cars from their tents. A pitch costs €65.

MULSANNE

So, even if camping’s not normally your thing, it’s only for two or three days and you can recover back home, having been that much closer to one of the most thrilling experiences on the planet. * Prices indicative.

LE MANS PRACTICALITIES

The Le Mans Circuit

Tertre Rouge

Esses Dunlop Chicane

Dunlop Curve

Mulsanne Straight

Ford Chicanes

The Circuit The Le Mans circuit, or Circuit de la Sarthe, is ideally suited to endurance racing. One of the longest in international motor racing at 13.6km, it comprises both permanent track and temporarily-closed public roads with a blend of testing flat-out straights, sweeping curves, deceptively tight turns, off-set cambers and brake-inducing chicanes. Surfaces can be slippery and public road sections somewhat less than smooth with rutting to the sides.

Mulsanne Straight Porsche Curves

Arnage

The circuit layout has evolved greatly since the race’s inception in 1923, often in response to the desire to improve driver and spectator safety. Key changes have been the creation of the Dunlop Curve and Tertre Rouge corners in the 1930s, the insertion of the Ford Chicane in 1968 and the addition of a wider section between Arnage and the Ford Chicane incorporating the Porsche Curves in the 1970s. In the 80s and 90s, a series of speed-reducing chicanes were introduced – The Mulsanne Straight being effectively split into three shorter sections - reflecting the 250mph plus speeds being posted. More recently, kinks have been added and chicanes tightened.

Indianapolis

Mulsanne

Although the circuit has changed over time, today’s drivers remain true to the spirit of racing at Le Mans, testing themselves and their cars to the limit.

LE MANS PRACTICALITIES

Finding Your Way Around The Clock The clock’s always ticking, but when the hands get close to 4.00pm, the all-important Le Mans Clock on the gantry above the pit lane entrance has an uncanny magnetic attraction: the 24 Hours starts bang on 4.00pm, and the car that’s covered the most laps 24 hours later is the winner.

The Control Tower Soaring high above the Le Mans pit complex, the glass-panelled Control Tower is like the bridge of a ship, a visual beacon at the heart of the circuit, symbolic of the organising ACO whose stewards, officials and timekeepers administer the race from its lofty galleries.

The Pit Garages Ranged along the north side of the Start/Finish straight, the Pit Garages are a hive of activity before and during the race. The top teams occupy the garages, fettling the cars during practice and effecting repairs during the race. Fuel rig arms and hoses cantilever out during pit stops for refuelling - when the tyres get changed too. Look for mechanics signalling lap times to their charges from the pit wall.

The Paddock The area behind the Pit Garage complex brims with team motorhomes and support vehicles, spilling over towards The Village where teams running in the support races occupy long runs of awning garages.

The Village So vast it’s impossible to miss: the area within the confines of the inner circuit accessed via the underpass beyond the main entrance is designated The Village. It’s a hive of retailing activity, buzzing with covered stalls and marquees selling all manner of souvenirs from books and models to replica racewear and automobilia. Also to be found are special displays of vintage cars – see the obscure French makes like Rene Bonnet – and numerous food and drink outlets including the circuit’s own operations.

The Le Mans Museum You’ll catch the flavour of Le Mans past if you watch the Legends race, but for a close up of some of the cars that made their name at La Sarthe take a look around the Museum, situated at the main entrance. See the mighty Porsche 917 that brought the marque its first Le Mans win in 1970 and the Bentley Speed 8, winner in 2003.

LE MANS PRACTICALITIES Michelin’s Race Tyre Fitters In the Paddock you’ll find the Michelin enclave where contracted race teams bring their wheels to be shod with Michelin tyres. Michelin will supply more than 35 of the 55 cars running in the 24 Hours, approximately 60% of the grid.

The Dunlop Bridge One of the circuit’s traditional landmarks is the semicircular Dunlop Bridge. It was installed in 1932, and despite several major circuit revisions including a chicane to slow cars down, the classic half-tyre footbridge still straddles the track after the start-finish straight.

The Fun Fair One of the main attractions for nocturnal ramblers at Le Mans was the Fun Fair, though it’s less of a feature now than its heyday, 30 to 40 years ago when it was infield. Now located near the Ford Curves, there’s still the big Ferris wheel, fabulous for an aerial view of the racing, plus a couple of stomach-churning rides that hurl you up in the air, and a few stalls and a punching machine. There are also dodgems and other stalls near the Esses to the side of the Museum.

The Drivers’ Parade After Wednesday and Thursday’s qualifying, on Friday’s rest day there’s a parade of all the 24 Hours’ drivers through Le Mans city centre.

Rock Concerts As if there’s not enough to occupy you during the Le Mans weekend, the rock concerts that proved so successful in recent years are back on the schedule, between 8 and 11 June, kicking off at 9.00pm. The venue is the stage up by the Dunlop Bridge.

On Wednesday evening there’s African-soul from Sarah Bessie and existential pop from Raphael.

Then on Thursday evening there’s pop-folk with Julian Peretta and Mia Wallas.

The gig scene culminates on Saturday night with punky funsters Concrete Knives and bill-topping Razorlight.

LE MANS PRACTICALITIES

Where to Watch: a spectator’s insight You’ve done the pit-lane walkabout, perused the paddock so you’ve had a chance to see the phenomenal cars close up. The obvious place to be when the race starts and finishes is as close to the line as possible, though the vast ‘tribunes’ or grandstands that stretch from the Ford Chicane, the length of the start-finish straight and as far as the Dunlop Chicane are likely to be heavily subscribed. They are however, worth the expense for the vantage point and as a sun shield during the day on Sunday.

If you’re lucky enough to have a VIP pass of some kind you can watch from the galleries and small balconies above the pits.

• Soon after the second Mulsanne chicane on the outfield is the Hotel Arbor, which allows parking in its car park for 10 Euros a head. The chicane is a short walk through the trees, and there are never many spectators there.

• Free shuttle buses circulate the outfield, enabling you to spectate at Arnage and Mulsanne corners on the far side of the circuit. From Saturday morning, forget using your own car. A bicycle is worth considering though.

• The start-finish straight morphs right into an awesome uphill swoop, before cars brake heavily for the first feature, the Dunlop Chicane, modified for 2006 to bring speeds down – though the tighter left-right switch still witnesses loads of action. Best view is from the infield, 50 yards down from the entry to the complex where you can check the racing line through the undulations.

• Cars under maximum braking for the deceptively tight Mulsanne Corner are an amazing spectacle, with frequent use of the now-expansive run-off area. The general admission ticket allows you to use the 200 yard-long grandstand but you probably need to drive here.

• Same at Arnage Corner, where the outfield car park and spectator enclosure allow access to Indianapolis’ banked right-left which provides mesmerising views of the cars snarling past on the dash to Arnage’s uncompromising 90-degree right-hander, the tightest on the course.

• The Porsche Curves replaced the notorious Maison Blanche section. They consist of a series of five sweeping uphill bends that begin where the circuit curves right to part with the public road. The Porsche exterior enclosure is accessed from the Beausejour campsite road

• Aptly named, the switchback Esses section passes through a small valley with fantastic views of the action. A good place to watch from is on the infield banking beyond the Bugatti Circuit, where you can follow the cars down the hill and through the Esses.

• A free observation platform is the pitlane roof of the Circuit de Alain Prost Karting track that’s adjacent to the Karting Nord campsite, and accessed via steps at the back of the building for a great elevated view of the track.

• Or access the Tertre Rouge Tribune on the outfield for an elevated view of the Esses, which is amazing at night when it’s floodlit. On the Tertre Rouge infield is the trackside ‘Stella Bar’, popular with seasoned racegoers. At Tertre Rouge corner the cars turn right on to the three-mile Mulsanne Straight.

• Almost back to the start/finish now, final landmark is the Ford Chicane. The only logical place to watch from is the outside, where you get great views of braking and cornering through the triple left-right complex, and onto the start-finish straight and the canyon of pits and tribune architecture. The small La Sarthe Tribune is a great vantage point but packed, so the banking that stretches from the Maison Blanche campsite as far back as the Porsche Curves will have to suffice.

• Access to the Mulsanne Straight is strictly prohibited for safety reasons, though you can get within a few feet of the action at the Aubérge des Hunaudières or Shanghai des 24 Heures restaurants located towards the braking zone for the first chicane. However, shrouded safety fencing makes viewing difficult, while corporate hospitality makes access tricky.

RELATED LE MANS ITEMS

Le Mans Series The Le Mans Series (LMS) sprang from the 24 Hours of Le Mans, runs in Europe and is sanctioned by the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO). It’s similar to the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) based in the United States and Canada, which has been running with ACO backing since 1999.

• The cars are interchangeable and LMS competitors acquire ALMS cars, while ambitious drivers may spend a season or two in each series. LMS champions and runners-up in all four categories receive an automatic entry to the following year’s Le Mans 24 Hour Race.

• The ACO attracts factory backed teams by staging longer endurance races (1000kms or six hours) than ALMS and FIA SCC (Sports Car Championship), but fewer races (five) during a season to keep costs down. The series is also Europe-based and thus closer to the factories of several major teams to help attract them to the series.

• First event under the LMS banner was the 1000km of Le Mans in 2003. With each successive year, long-haul races were added to the calendar, including Istanbul and Brazil.

• For 2011, five LMS rounds are scheduled at Le Castellet (Paul Ricard) won by Team Pescarolo, Spa Francorchamps, Imola, Silverstone and Estoril.

RELATED LE MANS ITEMS

Classic Le Mans The biennial extravaganza for historic racing sports cars and prototypes got going in 2002 and invariably attracts a mouthwatering array of iconic machinery. With classes from the 1920s to 1979, there’s something for all tastes.

This is one spectacular show, and past winners figure prominently across the board. Grid 1 is for the vintage brigade, Grids 2 and 3 are home to ’40s and ’50s cars, while Grid 4 (19621965), Grid 5 (1966-1971) and Grid 6 (1972-1979) contain the most beguiling of historic racers. With three races for each grid over the 24-hour period, all entrants are guaranteed a night session, and everyone relishes the nocturnal period when an air of mystery descends as the lights come on.

• In 2010 the Porsche 936 of Jean-Marc Luco and Jacques Nicolet walked away from almost everything in Grid 6 including a Gulf Mirage, Lola T280 and the backfiring 935s. Le Mans buffs will be pleased to know that a team consisting of five varied Porsches and a vintage Bentley won the Index of Performance.

• The monster Bentleys, Talbots and dainty Bugattis from the ’20s and ’30s are hugely spectacular in the corners – Arnage in particular, and most are surprisingly rapid on the straights.

• At the 2010 Classic, Richard Attwood who’d won 40 years previously, raced the actual Porsche 917 in which he and Herbie Müller came second in 1971.

He was entered in Grid 5 for 1966-1971 cars, co-driven this time by another Porsche Le Mans winner, Vern Schuppan. ‘It’s the same to drive as it was in ’71,’ Richard reported; ‘it’s just as dangerous and the tyres aren’t much different – they’re slicks and quite grippy, but they were back then. From ’67 there was a big development in tyres; in ’69 we were still on the old treaded tyres, and then we went from 12-inch rear wheels to 19-inches, a massive enlargement of rear wheels. That made them more difficult in the wet.’ There was no win for the 917 in 2010 though, Richard and Vern settling for a laudable third place behind a Lola T70 and a Chevron B16.

• The organisers managed to reprise the traditional pre-1970 Le Mans start. Old pals Vic Elford and Gérard Larrousse dropped the flag to get the racing under way with the drivers’ iconic sprint across the track.

RELATED LE MANS ITEMS

Le Mans Series Teams LMP1 • The revived Pescarolo team with its elderly Judd V10 will need to employ stealthy tactics to outwit rival Rebellion Racing with its Lola B10/60 and fresh Toyota engines in order to have a crack at the Le Mans Series crown this year. The Portuguese ASM team’s Zytec should also be a contender with Olivier Pla at the wheel.

LMP2 • Ray Mallock’s RML squad’s HPD ARX-01d and star driver Thomas Erdos are big rivals with Strakka Racing’s similar car, though Strakka were sporting enough to lend RML spares at the six hour season opener at Paul Ricard/Le Castellet. Potential challengers are the French TDS team moving up with a Nissan-powered ORECA. LMGT-E • Though Ferrari had the edge in 2010, Porsche’s Proton Felbermayr team took the GT2 title with Marc Lieb and Richard Leitz at the helm. The key was reliability, always a Porsche strength, and this year the Proton, IMSA and ProSpeed squads are running updated 911 GT3-RSRs against Ferrari’s gorgeous 458 Italia. White goods versus fine art, though the Sebring 12 Hours results indicate Maranello has an advantage judging by the AF Corse and JMW teams’ performance. Wild card is Jota’s Aston Martin Vantage GT2.

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